Enfojer project turns your smartphone into an enlarger for B&W prints

Billed as a way to bring back the romance of the darkroom in the smartphone era, Enfojer is an indiegogo project which promises to make your smartphone into an enlarger to create real prints. Part app and part hardware, Enfojer enlarges the image displayed on a smartphone's LCD, projecting it onto real photo paper. The paper is then processed as usual in traditional black and white chemistry. The resulting black and white prints are expected to last around 70 years when processed properly.

The Enfojer app is where you set the development time for each step of the process, including developer, stop bath and fixer. Exposure time is set with a slider.

Though iPhones are shown above, the plan includes apps and cell phone templates for several popular Android and Windows Phone 8 models as well.

Having made exposure settings, the user places the smartphone face down in the enlarger, turns off the room light, adjusts the image in the easel and sets focus

A snap of the fingers turns off the smartphone image and the user is able to position photo paper in the easel

Another snap of the fingers tells the smartphone to begin the image exposure. The smartphone's LCD provides the only light necessary

The user then develops the print in the traditional four-tray black and white process

With Enfojer, users can print up to 20x20cm prints (7.8x7.8 inches). The company plans to offer Ilford photo paper, but users will have to provide their own chemistry, due to complications of shipping chemicals internationally.

Because the source image displayed on an LCD is of a comparatively low resolution, Enfojer's lens is a 'polycarbonate toy camera style meniscus lens,' according to the FAQ, which 'blurs the image just right so you don't see the pixels on your print.' Enfojer can also print negatives, again using the smartphone's LCD as the light source. Later posts mention their intention to include an M39 lens mount due to popular demand. This will allow use of higher-quality enlarger lenses, which would have to be purchased separately.

The Darkroom Commander kit is available for a $450 contribution.

As an indiegogo project, Enfojer is funded by contributions, with sponsorship levels ranging from $10 up to $450. Those contributing $200 get just the enlarger, while those funding at the $250 level get a nearly full kit, including enlarger, trays, the safelight, and 100 sheets of Ilford black and white photo paper. If fully funded, the product is expected to ship in February 2014; a note on the site says the project will still receive funding even if it does not reach its goal.

Enfojer was created by FOJO, a Croatian team of four: Vanda Voloder, Ilija Stjepic, Daniel Bakotic and Leo Gavranic. Having raised just under $12,000 of their $100,000 goal, they have less than a month to go.

Comments

Hey guys - how about a follow up on this story? These guys appear to be scamming a whole bunch of folks who backed the Fojo. I ordered mine 15 months ago - no word, no product - out $425. From the looks of things, there are thousands like me. The few people who have received a Fojo claim that the product is severely damaged and / or missing parts. They are still actively taking orders on their website in spite of being unable to fulfill them. Even their pictures are shady - literally, they are wearing sunglasses on their about page. Four years - over $100,000 in backing (not including orders that go through their website) and nada.

Tomorrow I'll try an iPad in my DeVere 810 enlager to get something like this: http://www.de-vere.com/products.htmMight be useful for making analog negatives from digital files, especially when downsizing.

Erm... so you take a low-res onscreen image, blur it and enlarge it?That doesn't sound overly exciting to me.Now, using your phone or high-resolution tablet for a contact print could perhaps work. You'd need a screen with a resolution of, say, at least 360ppi (maybe 300 could work, and some phones have 440ppi displays) to prevent the pixels from being visible in the contact print; plus an app allowing you to pre-program when the screen should light up and shut down - and of course you would need a screen that's perfectly flat too. That could work. But enlarging the onscreen image doesn't make much sense to me.

I loved breathing in open trays of chemicals for hours at a time. Chemical stains on my clothing. Doing test strips, adjusting contrast, doing test strips, backing off exposure to allow for dry down, flattening prints, spotting prints, ahhh the romance. Then pour all those used chemicals down the drain. LOL the only thing romantic about it was the safe light. We all looked better with the safe light on. Photo101 teacher "never ask someone out for a date in the darkroom, wait till you get outside in the light".

"Billed as a way to bring back the romance of the darkroom in the smartphone era..."

Oh Lord. I can see this swiftly turning from "romance" to a relationship gone horribly bad.

Nothing like getting things on paper to show people how bad their smartphone images really look. It might stand a chance it the final print is about half the size of the original smartphone screen, but what's the point in that?

I think this system is going to produce a few really, really crappy looking prints...And then all the stuff (perhaps with the exception of the cool LED safelight) is going into the dustbin.

OK. So ... now I got surprised again. First the eFilm stuff, and now this. It is novel, I have to givi it that. And you shall not skip things on your first gut feeling. So ... I sat down thinking. Is this a working idea? Is this a good idea? Is it a fun idea?

Yeah, it will work. Maybe the screen is a bit dark. Exposure times may become long and focussing difficult. But ... it will work.

The app has to show it negative and in B&W.

This snapping idea is novel. I wonder how well it works.

You need a timer to make the work barable. It could snap for you :)

But, is it fun and a good idea.

It will not improve your result (I think).

Personally I would only use this for paper prints. There is no advantage with using resin paper over using a printer. And ... using paper prints introduces some tedious work ... just think of mounting it.

But ... if it is work you are looking for ... why not :)

But ... the major doubt is what I said above ... it will not improve your results.

Most likely not. There's a video on the site that shows what it takes to set up a shot. It would be trivial to remove it from the enlarger and make adjustments. What it seems to offer is a live preview of what kind of exposure you'll get with different settings, which would likely vary by photo paper and developer used.

One of the dumbest products I've ever heard of. It's not really that difficult to print out a negative of a digital file on a sheet of transparency film. Lay the transparency film on top of a sheet of photographic paper and turn a light bulb on for a few seconds. Much better quality, far fewer dollars.

Don't know how thick is the glass in the front of the actual panel, but you might try getting a "contact copy" printing, paper directly on the screen...If that works, someone will make even more money developing the app for it :"safelight" overlay to put the paper, "timer" for exposure of inverted image and then blackout back to safelight.... just for a stupid fun, if nothing else...I guess someone has already tried this.

You can buy a good serviceable normal enlarger for peanuts today at used photo shows, often $20 or so. Go get one of them and a basic SLR for about the same price, and shoot some black and white film instead of spending $450 on this thing.

Most kiddos today have never heard of , or know about dark rooms/enlargers, much less have seen one or having seen one on CraigsList [always some availalble there], have no clue as to what it would be used for.

I agree, can't see the point of this device. Resolution is too low (even compared to cheap printers) for any decent result, and price is too high for just fun. Real negatives beat those two points by far.

There are some good ideas in this world. This is not one of those. But maybe you can actually get a really cool "filter" effect that is only possible with this setup and that is to place a call to the mobile when it is doing the exposure and having the vibrator on...

We have used this process the last couple of years at Testrup Hojskole / college in Denmark. We use HARMAN DIRECT POSITIVE FB, and any phone with a camera. We use old and very cheap Meopta Axomat enlargers and strip them from their head. The investment is around € 10 to €20 for a used kit with trays, enlarger and so on.

Aha...it is for this that I have officially sequestered the forlorn Focomat IIc from my Dept's long abandoned darkroom for with use my D600 and 105 mm macro lens as I ease into retirement. Rock solid, precision focussing macro stand.

The linear resolution is 6.5X better, no doubt with higher dynamic range. I had to read "silver gelatin fibre-based photo paper" a few times to realize that it still exists. I figured it was all that sordid resin coated stuff. Bravo. I hope the digital enlarger does indeed become cheaper.

"I left out an important word: I was looking for high-resolution digital enlargers for home use."

Gottcha.

I still shoot film, and only one lab remains that can do MF locally. For 35mm, I passed on used scanners from eBay (and their issues), and just use a DSLR with Macro on a copy stand. I also use a light table that I ripped out of my old slide storage station for the color corrected light tubes within it.

I then mount the negs into a holder from an Epson scanner (to keep them flat), and shoot through a dark tube against the light. I also use a simple glass plate, dropped over the neg, if I want to capture the film edges for nostalgic reasons.

I capture via Canons EOS utility, and batch reverse the curves in PS, saving out to new files as tiffs back into an LR watch folder. The whole process is actually quicker than traditional scanners.

"But seriously, I wonder why we haven't seen truly high-resolution enlargers for home use. Or do they exist?"

I have one, it's called an Epson 3880 hooked up to a Mac, and with it I get better black-and-white prints than were possible in most home darkrooms, and it can do precise color printing, which was not very practical in a home darkroom.

Sorry, I did my time in the darkroom and did not see the romance in being trapped in a dark windowless room breathing chemicals. Digital rocks, and the quality is better.

Yes color processing is insanely complex and expensive for the home user, and I can live without developing b&w film. But watching an image appear on a sheet of print paper while you rock the tray is always somewhat magic. And a great image does not always depend on ultimate sharpness and lack of granularity. You can learn a lot about the photograph you are making during the few minutes it takes to appear before your eyes.

Ha ha, hipsters will waste $450 for this crap when CraigsList is your friend! I bought a Beseler 45MC Series Enlarger two years ago for $125 with Schneider 80mm, 50mm, and one that handles 4x5 film lenses; with 35mm, 6x6cm, 6x9cm, and 4x5 inch negative carriers. Which will handle film from my Kodak Retina IIIc, Nikon F, Bronica ETR-S, Franka Rolfix 6x9cm, Franka Solida IIIE, and Omege 4x5 monorail system...after processing the negatives myself of course! I picked up a Beseler 23C III for about the same price (good to have a spare enlarger of course).

Also, "The user then develops the print in the traditional four-tray black and white process" -- er, there are three trays, presumably developer, stop, and fixer. If you want prints to last 70 years, the fourth step had better be a very thorough rinsing. The fifth step is drying, and I don't see anything to help with that either....

#1 Developer#2 Stop Bath#3 Water to reduce acid carry over to the Fixer to extend its life.#4 Fixer#5 Water to reduce carry over to the Hypo Remover to extend its life#6 Hypo Remover#7 Water to hold prints until I am done printing and ready to wash them as a batch to conserve water

In that particular picture with the 'deluxe' stacker, they only show three trays, but the other bundles show four trays and four tongs. The video on their page also recommends following with a water bath.

cknapp61 -- my complaint was the 3 trays in a stated 4 tray process which seems likely to produce prints that will not last 7 days, let alone 70 years. That said, using fresh chemicals and ending with a thorough water wash may be wasteful, but can work fine with just 3 trays + a sink.

cknappnumber 3 tray in your list is useless as stop bath is to prevent developer carry over, fixer is not sensitive to acid (normally it is acid) so missing out your tray 3 will have no effect on the life of the fixer or prints.Hypo eliminator is only useful for fibre based paper, and shouldn't be used with PE types.For a fully archival print using PE paper develop, stop and fix then wash for 4 mins with running water.To conserve water use the Ilford wash method.

$450 buys quite a lot of traditional photographic equipment. E.g. $290 for everything you need (aside from a suitable room) to process film and make prints, and let's say $100 to buy a ridiculously good film camera on ebay.